YouTube removed 8.3 million videos in 3 months

YouTube took down 8.3 million videos in the last three months of 2017. The majority of those videos were spam or attempts to upload adult content. More than 80 percent of the videos removed were identified by machines rather than humans, 6.7 million of the 8 million videos removed were first “flagged” by machines rather than humans. 76 percent of the 6.7 million videos were removed by YouTube before they received even one view.

YouTube has already announced that they will be increasing the number of content moderators by 10 000 calling this the creation of an “Intelligence Desk”. That being said, we should all bear in mind that even with all those people looking for videos that shouldn’t be on the site, sometimes mistakes are made. The company has also reinstated a video from watchdog group Media Matters that reveals how some of the outrageous claims made by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones are lies. YouTube gave Media Matters a first strike and accused it of uploading a video that features "threats, harassment, bullying, or intimidation." YouTube realized its mistake after being asked about the video by The Guardian. After reinstating the video, YouTube said that removing it was a "wrong call." You can watch the clip by clicking on the video directly below.

The changes come in the wake of an advertiser boycott of the Google-owned video site over videos with children that were the target of sexually inappropriate comments. YouTube killed hundreds of accounts, removed more than 150,000 videos from the platform and turned off comments on more than 625,000 videos targeted by alleged child predators.

YouTube said Monday that of those 6.7 million videos identified by machines, 76 percent were removed before they received a single view.